


Giants

by NoeticEdda



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (sort of), F/M, Non-Linear Narrative, Soulmates, Stream of Consciousness, Surprises, star-crossed lovers, unconventional romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:55:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27544951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoeticEdda/pseuds/NoeticEdda
Summary: They hadn’t spoken in a long time.When they finally did, they had a few things to air out.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 24
Kudos: 34





	Giants

They hadn’t spoken in a long time.

Hadn’t seen each other. Out of earshot. Their paths hadn’t crossed and they were apart and it suited them fine, give or take a few lonely nights. She had her trajectory, he stayed in his lane. It was the two of them, in the wilderness, in the quiet. This was simply what the universe had laid out for them. But it was inevitable; sometime soon, they’d meet again. Just like they had, many times before. 

When they finally did, they had a few things to air out.

“You really are a scavenger.” His scowl was outsized and mobile, a kaleidoscope of chaos that dominated his already-imposing presence. “Pathetic. Always picking up everything you see, trailing it around. You can’t let anything go, can you? Even when our power is clear, after everything’s settled and obvious, here we are, _giants_ , but you? You’re still holding on.”

“I suppose you’ve got it all figured out, then. No problems, big man, king of the neighborhood. And not a storm in sight, is that right?” She shouldn’t taunt him. But he seemed to beg for it. “Give me a break. You’re pure turmoil. Look at that mark on your face.”

“That’s not my fault. And you should talk. Like you’re so placid and perfect and virtuous? No, you’ve got your own issues. You just keep them hidden better, off your face. Just—look away if you don't like what you see. Just look away.” The hurt that had crept into his tone shifted to nervous antagonism when he spoke again: “You can’t, can you?”

She sensed each shift of his mood, labile and volatile and so, so laden with the weight of his own heart, as it blurred out into the rest of his being without any discrete boundaries. But it was her own heart that yearned to reach out to him, her own heavy core that needed closeness, that craved his companionship after all this time.

“I don’t want to.”

He flinched. Her gaze was fixed on him. 

Both of them were completely still, suspended in that single pregnant moment. The stare they gave one another could have made hell freeze over. Monuments, motionless in space. Until they weren’t. 

They were spinning, moving, the force of a million centuries in their approach. They didn’t circle each other, but it was still a dance, of sorts. A slow dance. 

The space between them narrowed. Two bodies, surrounded by emptiness brushing up against emptiness, and they came closer, and closer, and closer. 

“You don’t want to . . . to look away from me?”

He drew nearer. She wobbled on her axis. “No.”

His voice lowered to a soft hush. “Even after what I said? You don’t think I’m a monster?”

“You’re trying very hard to seem like one. You always do.” 

“Why do you trust me?” He leaned in. “Why do you want me?” 

Her hesitation was filled with calculations, measurements. “Same reason you want me. Instinct. Chemistry. It’s in the stars. Fated.” Her pause meant more than her words. “And I’ve missed you.”

His breath hitched.

They were so close now, she could feel the heat emanating from his solid core; diffuse, blending outward with no clear lines or limits. An old soul, battered by a chaotic youth, marked for greatness but whose deepest wish was only for kinship.

“I didn’t mean it,” he said. “I love—” 

“I know.”

“Join me.” His words ghosted along her face. “ _Please_.”

When they came together, it was magnetic. Slow, and patient, the gravity of what they were doing did not escape either of them. It made everything feel heavier, every push and pull tighter, every moment more precious. They were locked in each other’s cosmic embrace; honest, immediate, intimate. 

“This can't last.” His lament blurred into the urgency of desire, pressure mounting and pleasure shuddering through both their bodies. They were building something unnameable, atom by atom.

“It will have to last us a millennium.” 

“I’ve longed for you, ten times that. For a hundred lifetimes. A million. Maybe more than men can count.” His pleading expression, the ache in his voice could melt diamonds.

She could be placid, like he’d teased. She could be stoic, but not now; he was right. It was all for show, anyway. Her voice was getting higher, all control slipping away from her even as she fought to stay ahead, stay on top. “Men could never count anyway. That's why they're men.”

“Always flinging things around.” He moved faster now. “Insults. Maxims. So quick to judge.” The smile beginning at the corner of his mouth threatened to crack her open. 

Her instinct was, as ever, to keep punching back. “And you’re a model of prudence? Balance? The mythical middle.” Her pleasure began cresting but she managed one last barb through a breathy whine: “You’re a fool.”

He huffed and grunted. “Yes I am.” The intensity overcame them, hurtling them toward the edge, as they came undone together, falling in place. But it was mostly a silent affair.

They held each other close for a long time, locked in each other’s gravity. Day turned to night turned to seasons and when they both drew back for breath, their time together was coming to an end.

“What a great romantic you are, calling me pathetic. A dirty scavenger who can’t let go of anything. Smooth.”

“I was in pain. It always hurts, I’m always in pain, every moment we’re apart. I miss you.”

“It’s not my fault we’re fated to come together like this, in the darkness. I’m lonely when you’re gone, too, you know.”

“I didn’t mean it.” 

More contrition. She had to milk it. Waste not, want not. “Mean what?” 

“That you’re pathetic. I didn’t mean it, I—”

“You what?” She took a deep breath, still holding him close, clinging to him, to the quiet, to the afterglow. Her next question betrayed the shell of austerity she’d worked a lifetime to cultivate; for one millisecond, she was only vulnerability, all hope. “What did you mean, then?”

“That you’re an angel,” he said, the lines on his face softening with each syllable. “The things you collect, the dust and the light, all of it—it’s like a halo.”

She was silent for a long moment. “I’m a virgin, then? Pure as the driven—”

“Certainly not, after—”

“Yes, yes I know. You’re no saint, either.”

“Angels, saints. Gods. Giants. Created by men, who, according to you, cannot count.” 

“They barely know what counting is,” she whispered, “my love.”

“They do their best. Just like we did, a long time ago. We’re not so different from them, anyway. Maybe the scale is different, but we’re still befoibled. Fragile. Finite.”

“Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. We’re not finite.”

“You know we are. We’ll meet again, and again— but one day, eons from now, our love may be what destabilizes everything, the very order of things. And then it will end.”

“And we’re stardust. And we’ll meet each other again. It won’t end, it will begin anew.” She caressed his cheek as he began to drift away. “I promise, I’ll find you again, I’ll find you forever.”

“I’ll look for your halo.”

“I’ll follow the storm.”

It would be eight hundred years before they met again in the same way, mirrored in perfect harmony, but every twenty years their paths got close enough for them to feel each other’s pull. Each time they came together, their union would light up the night sky on hundreds of worlds, most of them empty except for one little blue dot teeming with life. 

They parted again, knowing that one day their love could destroy the place they had called home for billions of years, scattering gas and dust and rocks to the interstellar winds. Their atoms would transform into something else, some new celestial body that burned even brighter for having their love as its beginnings. The energy he emitted, the things she gathered, all of it would nourish something new and full of possibility.

“I will always be with you,” he said as he spun away.

“No one’s ever really gone,” she replied as she swung farther out on her path. He was already tracing the grand swoop of his own orbit. She was talking to herself, in the cold darkness of space, stretching her arms out to collect cast off rocks and icicles. 

She might need them someday.

**Author's Note:**

> Saturn’s north pole has a hexagonally-shaped cloud formation, suggesting major storms, despite the planet’s otherwise serene appearance. Its vibrant rings are composed primarily of water ice, mixed with gas, rocks, and dust.
> 
> Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is an anticyclonic storm raging in the southern hemisphere for potentially as long as 360 years [(or even longer, or shorter)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Red_Spot#Observation_history). It appears to have been shrinking during recent observations. Jupiter also has rings, but they are very small and made mostly of dust.
> 
> While they are both gas giants, Saturn and Jupiter are thought to have heavy, solid cores. Jupiter’s core may be more diffuse, or “fuzzy,” blending out into its mantle, based on data collected by NASA’s recent [Juno Mission](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6340/821). Saturn has more moons than Jupiter. Scientists believe that both planets may rain diamonds.
> 
> The orbital resonance of Saturn and Jupiter has a ratio of 2:5 and the randomization time is around 800 years. Visualized, it looks like [this](https://38.media.tumblr.com/ceea8a2a904286b1170174f3226ca333/tumblr_inline_mq3kfa6O6q1qz4rgp.gif).
> 
> The death of our Sun will be the most likely cause of our solar system’s eventual destruction and the transformation of its matter into something new, like a nebula or stellar nursery. But there is a small chance that the solar system’s fate could be affected by another event; for instance, a collision due to a rogue planet interacting with our system. Also, the planets’ orbits around the Sun are increasingly chaotic to predict over longer timescales, creating the tiny possibility of a collision between two planets such as Saturn and Jupiter.
> 
> **Every ~20 years, the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter approach each other and they reach their closest physical proximity in space. This is known as a Great Conjunction, visible in the night sky in a straight line from Earth. The next such date this phenomenon will peak is December 21, 2020.**


End file.
